Mobile Developers: Here’s Why Writing Enterprise Apps is a Gold Mine

Where's the best place to get work if you're a mobile developer? A new survey finds that enterprises are in desperate need of mobile talent — only six percent say they have access to enough app developers, and 85 percent say they have a backlog of enterprise mobile app development jobs because they don't have enough developers to keep up with demand from the business side of the company. With the demand for business mobile apps expected to increase, there's no end of opportunity for application developers in the mobile enterprise market.

Those are just two findings from a survey conducted for OutSystems titled "Mobile App Backlog Is Directly Damaging Revenue in the Enterprise." The survey polled more than 200 enterprises in the U.S. and U.K. and found that 85 percent of companies have a backlog of between one and 20 apps, and 50 percent have a backlog of between 10 and 20 apps. To catch up, businesses need to find a way to build more mobile apps faster.

Why so much of a backlog? It's not just that mobile development talent is hard to find. Demand for mobile apps from inside enterprises is booming because it directly leads to additional revenue, according to the survey. Some 64 percent of those surveyed said increasing revenue was a primary goal of new mobile apps. This is good news for mobile app developers.

What Mobile Development Skills Are in Demand?

The survey found that enterprises had the hardest time finding developers with Java experience — 31 percent say they have had difficulty finding experienced Java developers. The next most difficult skill sets to find were JavaScript (19 percent) and .NET (17 percent).

As to what is the preferred mobile development environment, 33 percent said that a hybrid environment was their choice, followed by 29 percent who preferred native and 22 percent who wanted HTML 5/responsive design.

How much time it takes to build a complete mobile app? Some 51 percent said between three and six months, and 43 percent said between one and three months. Only one percent said it takes under one month. And six percent said it could take up to a year.

As to the breakdown between hiring in-house and outsourcing development of mobile apps, it's weighted towards in-house, with 72 percent using in-house developers, and 58 percent outsourcing development. Clearly, many companies do both, although the survey had no figures about that.

About Author

Dion McCormick

Dion McCormick, Lead Solutions Engineer at Alpha Software, is a recognized expert on agile application development. He helps enterprise development teams around the world transition from slow legacy approaches to high-performance mobile, web, and desktop development using the Alpha Anywhere platform.